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atoi equivalents?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg99370] atoi equivalents?
• From: Michael <michael2718 at gmail.com>
• Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 05:59:45 -0400 (EDT)

What is the most efficient or recommended way to parse numbers in Mathematica?

I can use ToExpression["1234"] and it will return the number.
But this won't do, because I could be scraping un-trusted data and the
above could lead to an injection of code.
I could also use something like this: ToExpression[StringCases["1234",
x1 : NumberString ~~ ___ -> x1]]
but then I have to add error checking and whatnot.
I suppose I could write a simple MathLink program which implement
atoi, atol, etc.

All of these solutions seems like a lot of overhead.  Anybody have a
better idea?

Thanks,

Michael